Well World series

Setting

The Well World series is largely set on a fictional planet named Well World. The Well World was constructed by an ancient alien species, known as the Markovians, who felt they had reached a dead end in their evolution. Volunteers were transformed into new, designed species. Once a species was deemed ready, it was sent out into the universe to begin evolving anew. The Well World is a planet-sized, reality-shaping computer that controls and maintains this new universe, which is layered on top of the much smaller, original Markovian one. By the time of the stories in the series, the Markovians have vanished, leaving behind the Well World, continually maintaining the new universe. The Markovian planets themselves contain the gateways leading to the Well World.

The Well World's surface is composed primarily of 1560 large hexagonal regions — called "hexes" — each with an independent and often dramatically different climate and ecosystem, that David Langford compares to the hexagonally tiled boards used in "hex-and-counter" forms of tabletop wargaming. Each of these hexes is a prototype environment for a planet that exists in the external universe, half of which, comprising the planet's southern hemisphere, contain carbon-based (or similar) oxygen-breathing life. The two hemispheres are separated by an impermeable wall that extends at least into the stratosphere. In the hexes that are bisected by the wall there is a separate gateway (the "avenue") to the Well of Souls, the control center for the computer.